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Wednesday, 3 July 2013

Endure by Carrie Jones

About the book

Endure is
the fourth and final book in the Need Pixies series by Carrie Jones. It was
published by Bloomsbury on 10th May 2012 and the book is 288 pages
long.

Plot Synopsis

Not too
long ago, Zara’s life was completely normal. She was a regular human getting on
with high school and making new friends. Then she discovered that pixies exist
and has now become one herself. Not only is she a pixie, she is Astley’s pixie
queen. After saving her boyfriend Nick from the mysterious place Valhalla,
things have gotten even more messed up. Neither of them are the people they
once were and with a massive war brewing, they really need to be able to get on
and work together.

Zara has a
plan to save everyone she loves but neither Nick or Astley agree with her
thinking. The only thing anyone agrees on is that the war is coming and they
know not everyone will survive. Whose lives are going to be lost on the way to
saving the world.

What I thought

It has been
quite a while since I last read about Carrie Jones’ world of pixies. I have so
many books from a series on my ‘to be read pile’ and I am so far behind with a
lot of them. Recently though, I have been trying to play catch up and finish
some of the smaller series, this being one of them. Although it has been well
over a year since I read the third book, it was easy to get back into what was
happening.

Zara has
now become Astley’s pixie queen, saved her boyfriend from Valhalla and has been
fighting for the good pixies and trying to get rid of the bad ones. At the
beginning of Endure, Zara has Nick living with her due to Grandma Betty being
missing. Zara and Nick have had a fabulous relationship throughout this series
but now, everything is extremely strained. He doesn’t remember anything about
Valhalla, especially Zara saving his life and he also hates pixies. That isn’t
a good thing considering his (ex?) girlfriend is now one. There is no clear
break up between the two but it is clear that they aren’t the couple they once
were.

On top of
Zara having to deal with Nick’s new feelings towards her, she also has to deal
with ruling as a pixie queen. Bad pixies are killing off people one by one in
the town where she lives and there are mutterings of a prophecy and her
stopping the end of the world. I really liked where the plot was taken in this
final book. There is quite a lot about old mythology and how humans have
changed/ rewritten this over time. I really enjoyed this aspect of Endure,
especially as there were some really great new characters brought in.

As with the
other books in this series, there is so much action throughout which was
something I really enjoyed. In Endure, the biggest fight of all is about to
happen and Zara knows she and the good pixies aren’t going to be enough to stop
humans dying. Although going behind some people’s backs, Zara makes a choice
and involves the humans in Bedford (where she lives). People have been going
missing and she thinks it’s only right that they get to fight for themselves. I
really admired Zara’s choices throughout this book and it really showed what
kind of a person she is. Unlike other characters, who do only think about themselves,
Zara thinks about everyone around her and protecting everyone.

The only
aspect of this book that was slightly disappointing for me was the romance. As
I said before, Zara and Nick’s relationship has been at the forefront of this
series but that really wasn’t the case in Endure. Nick has completely changed from
the person he was in book one and instead of it being for the better, he turned
into a bit of an ass. I really missed the fun interaction between these two
characters and due to Nick’s behaviour; it pushes Zara into the arms of
another. Although this has been a possibility throughout the series, I never
thought it would actually happen.

Overall
though, apart from the romance, Carrie Jones ended this series extremely well.
All previously open questions were answered and I really did enjoy where the
characters ended up. The Need Pixies series is a fantastic read and one I would
definitely recommend.